Blog

Historian and author Sally Powers-Albertz will present Fond du Lac’s Forgotten Pipe Man, the 1909 story of Jared Taylor, a member of the Taylor Park family and pipe man (hose tender) for the FDL Fire Dept. at 6 p.m. Thursday, July 17, at the Fond du Lac Public Library. The program is free; no registration required.

County Executive Allen Buechel will be joined by Beth Erdman from the Dept. of Natural Resources to discuss and answer questions about the recent Lake Winnebago manure spill and other polluted runoff at 6 p.m. Wednesday, July 16, at the Fond du Lac Public Library. The program is free; no registration required.

The BookCellar’s annual Bag Sale will take place Saturday, July 12, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the lower level of the Fond du Lac Public Library. The sale is being held in conjunction with the downtown Sidewalk Sale.

If you like reading romantic suspense with a western setting try the Beartooth Mountain series by B. J. Daniels. Having just finished Forsaken, third in the series, I have to say I am hooked on this genre. Not your typical western story, it has elements of murder, mystery, horses and handsome cowboys - what more could you ask for? Written with intertwining story lines and the beautiful details of the Montana landscape, you can almost smell the pine trees, the frost on the air, the smell of the horses, and the smoke from the campfires.

If you like mysteries set in Wisconsin, tryDeath Stalks Door County by Patricia Skalka, the first in the Dave Cubiak series. Cubiak was a Chicago cop who became a park ranger at Peninsula State Park after his wife and daughter were killed in an accident. He is still grieving, feeling guilty, and drinking too much. This is a not a cozy mystery even though the author does a good job of describing the beauty and ambience of Door County.

The Mega-Monday series of free, professional summer entertainment for all ages gets underway at the Fond du Lac Public Library on Monday, June 16, when Steve Russell will perform twice – at 10 a.m. and repeated at 1 p.m. – with his show of juggling, magic, comedy and good, clean fun.

Fulfilling the wishes of many customers, the Fond du Lac Public Library BookCellar now accepts Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express. The city’s only used book store is open Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and Mondays from noon to 7 p.m.

What a fun book! Unleashing Mr. Darcy by Teri Wilson is a humorous contemporary retelling of the classic Jane Austen novel Pride and Prejudice set (of all places) in the world of dog shows. Fans of Austen won't be disappointed; Wilson has very cleverly weaved in references to the original tale and does an excellent job bringing back to life Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth while adding a fun modern twist.

The title Confabulist means that a person makes up stories because the person does not know or cannot remember the truth, and narrator Martin Strauss is a confabulist. In the beginning Martin tells the reader that he has a condition where his brain cannot store and process memories and that he killed Harry Houdini. Part of the story is about Martin’s life as he believes it happened and part is factual information about Houdini.